Black mold and gastroparisis

Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Observations:

1. The first time (in 1999) I saw gastroparesis in a mold patient I was surprised. This condition of delayed emptying of the stomach basically occurs in older diabetics with a history of poor control of their metabolic abnormalities. To find this problem in any non-diabetics was bizarre. But finding one made me look for another. After finding another ten the question came, “How many others have I missed?”

My initial finding is what we call an N=1 study. No more than an anecdote, it is something interesting but who knows what significance the finding might bring. If other docs around the country were collaborating to collect and share data, maybe my N=1 gastroparesis finding wouldn’t be unusual at all. If so, let’s write a paper, right?

Actually, that ideal collaboration is starting to show benefits. Docs who take the time (and they aren’t paid to do so) to collect and collate data are making a difference in mold illness.

Back then there was no group of people linked by published peer reviewed data and there was no survivingmold.com. So I just kept recording the “oddities” I was seeing against the time in the future that those observations would reach statistical significance. Now in 2012 that I have a data base on gastroparesis showing that about 10% of non-diabetic mold patients suffer from this condition, compared to less than 0.1% of non-moldy, non-diabetics, I can ask are there others for whom this diagnosis is missed?

I suspect a lot of people are walking around with a diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome because of their bloating, abdominal pain and feeling of fullness. Maybe they are taking reflux meds and not doing well because the problem is not gastric acid related but instead caused by the stomach being a big, floppy bag that doesn’t contract very well.

Maybe the problem is bile acid reflux instead, another incredibly common problem in my patients. I won’t be discussing this problem today so much as to say it is real, easily fixed and almost universally misdiagnosed

http://www.survivingmold.com/about/mold-announcements/2012-08

Well friends we recently discovered black mold in our bathroom. In researching I have found lot of correlation in gastroparisis and black mold along with all my other symptoms (and husbands). So alas...we are working on removing this problem!